Collapse

Collapse PDF

Author: Jared Diamond

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2013-03-21

Total Pages: 608

ISBN-13: 0141976969

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From the author of Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive is a visionary study of the mysterious downfall of past civilizations. Now in a revised edition with a new afterword, Jared Diamond's Collapse uncovers the secret behind why some societies flourish, while others founder - and what this means for our future. What happened to the people who made the forlorn long-abandoned statues of Easter Island? What happened to the architects of the crumbling Maya pyramids? Will we go the same way, our skyscrapers one day standing derelict and overgrown like the temples at Angkor Wat? Bringing together new evidence from a startling range of sources and piecing together the myriad influences, from climate to culture, that make societies self-destruct, Jared Diamond's Collapse also shows how - unlike our ancestors - we can benefit from our knowledge of the past and learn to be survivors. 'A grand sweep from a master storyteller of the human race' - Daily Mail 'Riveting, superb, terrifying' - Observer 'Gripping ... the book fulfils its huge ambition, and Diamond is the only man who could have written it' - Economis 'This book shines like all Diamond's work' - Sunday Times

Collapse of a Country

Collapse of a Country PDF

Author: Nicholas Coghlan

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2017-09-04

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0773551808

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The first Canadian diplomat to be posted to war-torn Sudan, Nicholas Coghlan was a natural choice to lead Canada’s representation in the new Republic of South Sudan soon after the country was founded in 2011. In late 2013, Coghlan and his wife Jenny were in the capital, Juba, when it erupted in gunfire and civil war pitted one half of the army against the other, Vice-President Machar against President Kiir, and the Nuer tribe against the Dinka. This action-focused narrative, grounded by accounts of meetings with key leaders and travels throughout the dangerous, impoverished hinterland of South Sudan, explains what happened in December 2013 and why. In harrowing terms, Collapse of a Country describes the ebb and flow of the war and the humanitarian tragedy that followed, the Coghlans’ scramble to evacuate South-Sudanese Canadians from Juba, and the well-meant but often ill-conceived attempts of the international community to mitigate the misery and bring peace back to a land that has rarely known it. Coghlan’s stark narrative serves as a lesson to politicians, diplomats, aid workers, and practitioners on the breakdown of governance and relationships between ethnic groups, and the often decisive role of international development representatives. Fast-paced and poignant, Collapse of a Country gives an insider’s glimpse into the chaos, violence, and ethnic conflicts that emerged out of a civil war that has been largely ignored by the West.

The Collapse of Complex Societies

The Collapse of Complex Societies PDF

Author: Joseph Tainter

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1988

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9780521386739

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Dr Tainter describes nearly two dozen cases of collapse and reviews more than 2000 years of explanations. He then develops a new and far-reaching theory.

The Collapse of America

The Collapse of America PDF

Author: Anthony M. Townsend

Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing

Published: 2008-06

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 1598586750

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America is falling, and may not be here without change, as we know it, in our life time, just as the U.S.S.R. suddenly fell in the 1990's, ruining that Super Power and ending the cold war, with hundreds of thousands of refugees having to flee Russia. With reports of human meat being sold as the currency rubble] became worthless, as the U.S.S.R broke up into 15 independent States, unexpectedly, shocking the world. Indicative of the fact that it will happen to America, as banks made sub-prime loans to rape the housing industry and consumers with credit cards. And the manufacturing base being traded bit by bit, liquidating assets for cash, selling out the U.S. Preparing for the collapse of the U.S dollar, and the fall of the U.S. With the U.S. borrowing billions to fund tax cuts for the rich. Are we truly living in the last days of America, as a Super Power? All States without exception, have come to an end, as a historical norm. America is not mentioned in any Jewish, Christian, or Islamic, scriptures. Thus, it will not be here as we know it, in the end. But this is not a religious writing. Oil is only the first commodity to be affected with housing, money, food, loans and soon jobs following. Like China, and the EU, we need to stop the hording of so much money in the hands of so few. The gold standard is not the bases for our money since 1975. Meaning that paper and plastic have no intrinsic worth. If history repeats itself, and it does, we may have multiple civil wars, with Hawaii declaring independence in April as a protest over how the economy has been managed. With each State having its own National guard, and gangs and militia's, and KKK, armed to the teeth, we will start to hear phrases like who will pay for this and that debt. With maybe as many as ten different presidents, as the U.S. brakes up. Rumors of war. We, the people, must demand a marshal plan for America, and not Europe, Japan, S. Korea, etc., and now maybe Iraq. All of us in America need to have access to the money we need, at low or no cost to save America, and optimize the multiplier effect: but it has to be spent in the U.S., to make America strong. Thus, we need to stop the banks and utility companies, etc. from hording. It is insanity to have multibillionaires, as they cannot spend these sums. We can re-order the economy or others will do it for us. This book will attempt to answer the question on how to stop such a fall, into a dark age. And instead have cooperation, and justice between all men and countries; Stopping this horrible cycle of systematic retardation of Mankind. America is the last best hope for Mankind, as America has polluted and consumed too much of this planet's resources becoming the Super Power it is, to have a new emerging Super Power, doing the same.

State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror

State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror PDF

Author: Robert I. Rotberg

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2004-05-13

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 9780815775720

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The threat of terror, which flares in Africa and Indonesia, has given the problem of failed states an unprecedented immediacy and importance. In the past, failure had a primarily humanitarian dimension, with fewer implications for peace and security. Now nation-states that fail, or may do so, pose dangers to themselves, to their neighbors, and to people around the globe: preventing their failure, and reviving those that do fail, has become a strategic as well as a moral imperative. State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror develops an innovative theory of state failure that classifies and categorizes states along a continuum from weak to failed to collapsed. By understanding the mechanisms and identifying the tell-tale indicators of state failure, it is possible to develop strategies to arrest the fatal slide from weakness to collapse. This state failure paradigm is illustrated through detailed case studies of states that have failed and collapsed (the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, the Sudan, Somalia), states that are dangerously weak (Colombia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan), and states that are weak but safe (Fiji, Haiti, Lebanon).

The Coming Collapse of China

The Coming Collapse of China PDF

Author: Gordon G. Chang

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2001-09-15

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1588360210

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China is hot. The world sees a glorious future for this sleeping giant, three times larger than the United States, predicting it will blossom into the world's biggest economy by 2010. According to Chang, however, a Chinese-American lawyer and China specialist, the People's Republic is a paper dragon. Peer beneath the veneer of modernization since Mao's death, and the symptoms of decay are everywhere: Deflation grips the economy, state-owned enterprises are failing, banks are hopelessly insolvent, foreign investment continues to decline, and Communist party corruption eats away at the fabric of society. Beijing's cautious reforms have left the country stuck midway between communism and capitalism, Chang writes. With its impending World Trade Organization membership, for the first time China will be forced to open itself to foreign competition, which will shake the country to its foundations. Economic failure will be followed by government collapse. Covering subjects from party politics to the Falun Gong to the government's insupportable position on Taiwan, Chang presents a thorough and very chilling overview of China's present and not-so-distant future.

1177 B.C.

1177 B.C. PDF

Author: Eric H. Cline

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2015-09-22

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13: 0691168385

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A bold reassessment of what caused the Late Bronze Age collapse In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites, or Babylonians. The thriving economy and cultures of the late second millennium B.C., which had stretched from Greece to Egypt and Mesopotamia, suddenly ceased to exist, along with writing systems, technology, and monumental architecture. But the Sea Peoples alone could not have caused such widespread breakdown. How did it happen? In this major new account of the causes of this "First Dark Ages," Eric Cline tells the gripping story of how the end was brought about by multiple interconnected failures, ranging from invasion and revolt to earthquakes, drought, and the cutting of international trade routes. Bringing to life the vibrant multicultural world of these great civilizations, he draws a sweeping panorama of the empires and globalized peoples of the Late Bronze Age and shows that it was their very interdependence that hastened their dramatic collapse and ushered in a dark age that lasted centuries. A compelling combination of narrative and the latest scholarship, 1177 B.C. sheds new light on the complex ties that gave rise to, and ultimately destroyed, the flourishing civilizations of the Late Bronze Age—and that set the stage for the emergence of classical Greece.

Understanding Collapse

Understanding Collapse PDF

Author: Guy D. Middleton

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2017-06-26

Total Pages: 463

ISBN-13: 110715149X

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In this lively survey, Guy D. Middleton critically examines our ideas about collapse - how we explain it and how we have constructed potentially misleading myths around collapses - showing how and why collapse of societies was a much more complex phenomenon than is often admitted.

Collapse of an Empire

Collapse of an Empire PDF

Author: Yegor Gaidar

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 0815731159

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"My goal is to show the reader that the Soviet political and economic system was unstable by its very nature. It was just a question of when and how it would collapse...." —From the Introduction to Collapse of an Empire The Soviet Union was an empire in many senses of the word—a vast mix of far-flung regions and accidental citizens by way of conquest or annexation. Typical of such empires, it was built on shaky foundations. That instability made its demise inevitable, asserts Yegor Gaidar, former prime minister of Russia and architect of the "shock therapy" economic reforms of the 1990s. Yet a growing desire to return to the glory days of empire is pushing today's Russia backward into many of the same traps that made the Soviet Union untenable. In this important new book, Gaidar clearly illustrates why Russian nostalgia for empire is dangerous and ill-fated: "Dreams of returning to another era are illusory. Attempts to do so will lead to defeat." Gaidar uses world history, the Soviet experience, and economic analysis to demonstrate why swimming against this tide of history would be a huge mistake. The USSR sowed the seeds of its own economic destruction, and Gaidar worries that Russia is repeating some of those mistakes. Once again, for example, the nation is putting too many eggs into one basket, leaving the nation vulnerable to fluctuations in the energy market. The Soviets had used revenues from energy sales to prop up struggling sectors such as agriculture, which was so thoroughly ravaged by hyperindustrialization that the Soviet Union became a net importer of food. When oil prices dropped in the 1980s, that revenue stream diminished, and dependent sectors suffered heavily. Although strategies requiring austerity or sacrifice can be politically difficult, Russia needs to prepare for such downturns and restrain spending during prosperous times. Collapse of an Empire shows why it is imperative to fix the roof before it starts to rain, and why so

The Collapse of Western Civilization

The Collapse of Western Civilization PDF

Author: Naomi Oreskes

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2014-07-01

Total Pages: 105

ISBN-13: 0231537956

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The year is 2393, and the world is almost unrecognizable. Clear warnings of climate catastrophe went ignored for decades, leading to soaring temperatures, rising sea levels, widespread drought and—finally—the disaster now known as the Great Collapse of 2093, when the disintegration of the West Antarctica Ice Sheet led to mass migration and a complete reshuffling of the global order. Writing from the Second People's Republic of China on the 300th anniversary of the Great Collapse, a senior scholar presents a gripping and deeply disturbing account of how the children of the Enlightenment—the political and economic elites of the so-called advanced industrial societies—failed to act, and so brought about the collapse of Western civilization. In this haunting, provocative work of science-based fiction, Naomi Oreskes and Eric M. Conway imagine a world devastated by climate change. Dramatizing the science in ways traditional nonfiction cannot, the book reasserts the importance of scientists and the work they do and reveals the self-serving interests of the so called "carbon combustion complex" that have turned the practice of science into political fodder. Based on sound scholarship and yet unafraid to speak boldly, this book provides a welcome moment of clarity amid the cacophony of climate change literature.